Skip to content

How we spend your money

WDC receives support from individual donors, trusts, corporate partners and other stakeholders. All of our supporters are important to us.  We are determined to spend your generously donated funds, in the most efficient way, to achieve the most for whales and dolphins.

How we use your donations to help whales and dolphins:

Campaigning: WDC engages the public to affect real change by putting pressure on decision-makers on key issues such as whaling and captivity.

Field work and research:  WDC is a global authority on whale and dolphin issues.  Much of our expertise, and the evidence and data we need for conservation, comes about through long-term research and study of whales and dolphins.  This includes fieldwork, as well as desk-bound research and analysis.

Funding conservation projects:  As well as our own projects, WDC has funded many conservation projects over the last 30 years; we’re proud to support grassroots conservation efforts in remote parts of the world.

World Ocean's day beach clean

Education and outreach: Conservation can only be achieved if enough people know how amazing whales and dolphins are and care enough to protect them.  WDC’s activities include our multilingual web sites, school visits, talks to stakeholders in communities, media work, our visitor experience at the Scottish Dolphin Centre, work at whale and dolphin hotspots such as Chanonry point in Scotland, our award-winning supporter magazine and giving advice to whale watch operators and tourists. 

Advising governments and attending international forums: 

Many of the big decisions affecting whales and dolphins are made at government and inter-governmental level; often at forums such as the International Whaling Commission and the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species. WDC’s experts advise governments, present evidence and help shape conservation legislation.  This is critical to - for example - fighting attempts to restart commercial whaling, banning trade in whale meat, and creating and shaping marine protected areas.

Our offices and fundraising costs: Whales and dolphins exist in all oceans and many river systems. The issues affecting them are wide-ranging and varied.  It is essential that WDC does not restrict itself to one country or office. Our offices in the UK, North America, Australia, Latin America and Germany give us truly global scope. We fund the processes, people and fundraising activities that will help us deliver the income and resource we need to achieve our policy goals.  In the last financial year, for each £1 that was spent on fundraising activity, we raised £5.39.

How WDC is run

Our structure

WDC is a registered charity in the UK. All other offices and our trading arm are subsidiaries of the charity (no. 1014705). As with all charities, we are governed by a board of trustees, and run by executive directors. See who we are.

We are registered as a charity or its nearest equivalent in countries where we have offices:

Whale and Dolphin Conservation (“WDC”) is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England No. 2737421.  Registered charity No. 1014705 (England and Wales)  and No. SCO40231 (Scotland)

Subsidiary undertakings:

WDC (Trading) Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of WDC.  It is a company registered in England No.2593116.  All profits are gift-aided to the parent charity.

WDC Germany GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of WDC. It is a non-profit organization registered in the commercial register under HRB 126158.

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Inc is a tax exempt, non-profit and a 501(c)(3) registered organisation in the USA.

In addition:

Whale and Dolphin Conservation (Australasia) Incorporated is a company registered in Australia as an Incorporated Body (no. A37727), Australian Business No.  37792681565

The company name is used under licence granted by WDC.

Each of these offices has a board, which is made up of WDC executive directors and regional experts and stakeholders.

20080730 - Reflection - Karolina Jesinska

Help protect whales and dolphins from the threats they face

By adopting a dolphin or by making a donation, you can help us save these amazing creatures.

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin © Mike Bossley/WDC

Adopt

Adopt a dolphin and follow the lives of these amazing creatures.

Humpback whale

Donate

Your gifts help us take action to protect their homes.